Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Americana

This is the first album from Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, and Poncho Sampedro) in nearly a decade, and wowee, was it worth the wait. Some of these compositions, like "Tom Dooley" and "Oh, Susannah," were written in the 1800s, while others, like "Get a Job" and "This Land Is Your Land" (with all the verses) are 20th-century folk classics. As we face our own economic and cultural upheavals, these songs of protest, love-longing, murder, wandering, and hard times speak to us just as poignantly and powerfully today. Young offers historical details about the songs, which also include "Gallows Pole," "Wayfarin' Stranger," "Clementine," "High Flyin' Bird," "Travel On," "Tom Dooley," and "She'll Be Comin’ 'Round the Mountain." "A very young choir of children" helps out the old rockers, according to Young. "They're songs we all know from kindergarten, but Crazy Horse has rearranged them, and they now belong to us."